Last minute shoppers take advantage of final weekend before Chri - WFXG FOX54 Augusta - Your News One Hour Earlier

"Not that one!" exclaims Ashley Hawkins' young daughter, when her mother shows her a pair of shoes.

"Not that one? Ok," laughs Ashley, putting them back. "Let's see if you like a different pair."

Ashley and her daughter are walking the aisles of Academy Sports and Outdoors in Evans, looking for one more Christmas gift for her husband.

"Sometimes I add just a little extra thing at the end," she says. "Things they don't know about already."

Elizabeth Suppan is in the same boat as Ashley.

"Let's go with the khaki," she tells a sales clerk. "What do you have close to his size in that?"

She's shopping for her father and husband at Lionel Smith, Ltd. in Aiken.

"I had to work all the way until yesterday. I didn't have time!" she laughs. "I had to get this last minute stuff today."

Both were just a part of the thousands of shoppers out looking to snag those last minute gifts on the final weekend before Christmas.

It's been a busy weekend at Academy Sports and Outdoors, where checkout lines were packed all day Saturday with shoppers taking home gifts both big and small.

"A lot of the same, typical, every Christmas items- basketball goals, bikes, trampolines, game tables," says Store Director Ken Fehrenbach about what items are popular Saturday. "A lot of the smaller ten, twenty dollar items are moving as well."

It's a similar story in Aiken, where Lionel Smith Ltd. was buzzing with customers.

"Not one thing's been particular," says Store Manager Danny Minolfo. "We've just been fortunate to be moving a lot of merchandise today."

And whether it's the national chains like Academy, or the small, local stores like Lionel Smith, they're all saying this weekend has been a big boom for business.

"Yesterday paralleled Black Friday sales for us," says Fehrenback.

"I think they'll be real important to us to make that last hurrah," explains Minolfo about these final few days before Christmas.

And for shoppers like Ashley and Elizabeth, they say they're just glad they got their shopping done with at least a day or two to spare.